When forested land is harvested, tree stumps, branches and other plant debris remain in or on the harvested ground. To recultivate the debris must be either removed or worked around.
Often, stumps and other debris are fragmented and removed with equipment developed for other purposes, such as bulldozers, backhoes, excavators and the like. However, such equipment is primarily designed for digging into or smoothing out a ground surface and, although able to do so, is not well adapted to efficiently crush, fracture or otherwise fragment large items such as stumps, branches and the like into smaller pieces and mix or turn them back into the ground where they are biodegradable. If the remains of harvested trees are not effectively fragmented or are simply removed from the ground, decay of the wood and recycling of minerals and other nutrients back into the soil can be impaired or prevented.
Similarly, known equipment that is basically dedicated to the task of breaking up tree stumps and other plant material is not well adapted to subsequently work debris into the ground or to prepare the ground for cultivation by scraping or grading operations.
There is therefore a need for a single device specifically adapted to fracture, pound, or otherwise fragment stumps and the like, and to also effectively separate the fragments so formed and turn them into the ground and to perform these functions on a large scale.